Question Time

COVID-Ready Road Map

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): My question is to the Premier. Did the Premier consult directly with industry leaders at Business SA, the Master Builders Association or the Australian Hoteliers Association before he announced his COVID road map yesterday?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:35): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I speak to people who are representatives of the industry associations, as well as people who are in the organisations, all the time. One of the things that we are very keen to do as we progress towards 23 November, when we will be removing those state borders, is that we move away from the existing test, trace, isolate and quarantine arrangements, which require those who come into close or casual contact to go into 14 days of directed quarantine. This is not going to be practical.

When we lift the border, there will be cases that come into South Australia. We will take every single precaution. We made this clear to the industry associations—that we would take every single precaution, which would include only those people coming in needing to be double-vaccinated, so this is number one, and of course they will need to provide evidence ahead of coming in of a negative test.

We will take every precaution to keep people out of South Australia who may be infected, but we will get cases in South Australia. That's why we need to keep test, trace, isolate and quarantine arrangements in place as well as some public health social measures. This is exactly and precisely in line with the advice that we have received at national cabinet from the Doherty Institute.

Industry made it very clear: there is no way, when new cases come in, that we can have 14 days of quarantine for members—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: As I was saying, people from industry have said there's no way we could have 14 days of quarantine for all those close and casual contacts when people come across the border who are infected. We agree with them. As we get to 80 per cent fully vaccinated in that population 16 and over, we won't need to, so the maximum time that somebody will be in quarantine will be seven days if they are fully vaccinated—a great motivation for people to go out and get fully vaccinated.

I've got to say I'm very grateful to the people of South Australia. Already 75 per cent of people in this state over 16 are fully vaccinated; more than 85 per cent have at least had one shot. But, more than that, we have been able to make it very clear for the business sector that there is no longer the threat of statewide lockdown as of Tuesday next week. This has been a huge threat and concern for people in business. That has been eliminated.

We also won't be requiring the full thorough clean that was part of the initial stages, where entire businesses were closed for that cleaning purpose. It will be a much lower level clean required, and most businesses will be able to do this in their normal course of operation.

We also will be providing much lower level restrictions to those people who might come into casual contact. In most instances, people will just be required to monitor their symptoms or maybe go off for testing and, in a limited number of circumstances, to be in quarantine—either seven days or 14 days.

I think we have very much taken on board the concerns of the business community in South Australia. They have borne the brunt of a very difficult situation over the last 19 months, with border closures and restrictions often changing at a moment's notice. We've done all those things on the advice of Health to keep our state safe but also to keep our economy strong.

I am very delighted that in South Australia at the moment we have the highest number of people ever in full-time employment in South Australia. That is a tribute to the people who have abided by those restrictions that have been suggested by the health experts, followed those instructions, and they have kept our state safe.

Now we are going into a new phase, so we can start to ease those restrictions as of the 23^rd of this month, and then, of course, as we track closer to the 90 per cent of all people being fully vaccinated we will be able to reduce those restrictions even further.